


look after me

by nakayuz



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Caring Roronoa Zoro, Character Death, Dialogue Heavy, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates, Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates As Family, Violence, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:54:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25856962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nakayuz/pseuds/nakayuz
Summary: and then, luffy screams. real, raw , hysterical screaming that nearly tears his throat. he can hardly hear it through the ringing in his ears. he wraps his arms around the corpse, tears falling once again, and he keeps screaming.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy/Roronoa Zoro
Comments: 9
Kudos: 69





	look after me

**Author's Note:**

> had this one stashed away half done, so i finished it. i love zombie au's and just apocalypses ideas in general. hopefully i can one day expand on the already-made-up-in-my-head-one-piece-zombie-au one day. a lot of my ideas are referenced in this.
> 
> please mind my bad writing. it's been a while. they may be ooc.
> 
> enjoy ^^

“you know, i thought we’d last longer than this.” zoro says, breathing heavily.

luffy says nothing, rather reaches out to grab his hand. he could feel something warm, liquid like press against his palm and fingers as he intertwined them. blood, he assumes. 

luffy then turns his head, his cheek met with dirt. he nearly forgot he was lying on the ground next to zoro, who’s staring upwards at the sky. orange and fading to deep red, then black. dusk time was the scariest time of the day. monsters would come out during the night- dangerous, rotting, flesh eating _monsters_.

it all started with the government. “accidentally” releasing a sort of virus that spread, spread only by contact and blood. makes the victim go insane, lose who they are. so insane they become cannibalistic. luffy recalls the times he’s watched people he knew- no, friends attack friends, biting their necks or scratching their eyes out. he winces at the memories.

the world crumbled as soon as that virus took over. it’s the apocalypse. even the area they lay in would be unrecognizable 4 years ago. they lay upon a cliff overlooking a rundown city- buildings crumbled and smoke rising from some of the rubble. all the windows on the buildings were smashed, some boarded up. cars were tipped over, parked in a way that would be illegal. trees surround them, scratched up bark and leaves falling. the season’s changing. maybe into autumn. maybe winter.

luffy remembers managing to make friends, _companions_ surviving- zoro practically being the first. the one who stayed the longest with him. and others; two females and five other men. some young, some old. but friends, nonetheless. they all looked after each other.

and yet, despite the battles and the pushing through the dystopian world, they all withered away; one by one.

bitten or scratched, becoming infected with the illness. killed by enemies. starvation. killed by their own friends.

until it was just luffy and zoro left.

luffy starts crying. he watched every single one of them die. he couldn’t save a anyone. he knows one still roams as a monster and hopes, pleads to someone, something that they are finished, just so they can rest. he covers his eyes with his free hand, sobbing as quietly as he can.

“you can cry, luffy.” zoro squeezes his hand. he coughs, quite hard and there’s a sputtering. luffy winces.

“do you remember, luffy.” zoro starts, there’s a light wheeze in his voice. “when you first met me?”

his breath hitches and sobbing comes to a slow, the memory slowly returning. it was just the beginning of it all. only the beginning.

“you had found me in that house, right?” he says. “some dickheads who had me trapped by a handcuff to a doorknob. it was kind of embarrassing.”

“i remember.” luffy says. he was never told fully what happened. just that a group of survivors saw him as a threat, maybe thought he was infected. an ex-cop in the group managed to handcuff him to the door, leaving him to die. the house was destroyed, looted and he was left there starving. until luffy came along.

“when i heard the front door open, i thought i was going to die.” zoro chuckles. “i wasn’t going to die of starvation but- if one of those things got to me, i probably wouldn’t be able to hold my own.”

“but it was just me.” luffy smiles lightly.

“it was just you.”

luffy looks to his side to lock eyes with zoro, who’s turned his head too. there’s an ugly scar over his left eye. an enemy attack if he recalls correctly. dirt covering his face and blood pouring slowly from his mouth, lips chapped. the look in his eye is gentle. he doesn’t remember that look before.

“thanks, luffy.” zoro says. his voice has died down to a whisper, and he closes his eye.

“zoro?” luffy’s stomach drops, and he sits up.

“it was a long adventure. we met some great people.” his eye opens again and luffy calms down some, noticing some tears in his eyes.

“i miss them.” zoro whispers.

luffy looks forward, pulling his legs to his chest, letting go of zoro’s hand. “me too.” he whispers.

“remember...” zoro laughs gently, but only brings more coughing and sputtering. “remember when we drove off that cliff once? using that truck usopp loved so much.”

“our patchwork was really bad.”

“we had to get that new one.”

“it was meant to take us to the coast.” luffy looks out to the city. past that city, according to the maps in their bags and notes, is the shoreline. ocean. secure _freedom_. “we had to leave it behind.” luffy shakes his head. “franky will be mad at us.”

zoro only smiles. “we made sure it’s safe. he’ll be fine.”

“everything’s safe.” luffy rests his chin on his knees. “nami’s money. usopp’s weapons. sanji’s cooking utensils, his cigarettes, and lighters too. chopper’s medicine and hat. robin’s books. franky’s truck. brook’s instruments they’re all-“ he swallows a sob. “they’re all safe.”

“and my swords, too.”

“zoro’s swords too.”

“look at me, luffy.”

luffy hesitates. he hardly looked at him since they ran from the city. what was meant to be a simple pass through for supplies and to get to the coast led to a swarm of those monsters attacking them.

he lets go of his legs and shifts to face him, crossing his legs, looking up at zoro. he’s still lying down, arms to his side and a solemn like expression. he’s bloody… so _bloody_. 

“you did not fail.” he says. “what has happened, luffy... is not your fault.”

luffy bites his lip, teeth clenching as he balls his fist and looks down. his eyes start to burn with tears again.

“this isn’t your fault either.” zoro holds up his arm. there’s a deep, rotting, bloody wound in the shape of teeth. two rows of those punctures. black and purple, veins running from them in a crimson color, the skin around it is greying. a bite.

“zoro...” luffy says through a sob. “i don’t want to.”

“me neither.” zoro’s voice has died to a whisper once more. “but i’m running out of strength. my time is nearly up.”

“what do i do after this?” luffy cries, his hands falling to the ground as he shakes his head.

“go to the coast.” zoro’s eye closes. “there’s still a chance for you. adventure still awaits. consider it a new era.” he pauses. “there’s safety somewhere.”

“i want zoro to get to safety too. with me.” luffy shakes his head, tears falling from his face and dampening the dirt.

“you know i can’t.” zoro tries to reach out to grab one of his hands but fails. luffy almost doesn’t notice but grabs his hand for him. he holds zoro’s hand between his and brings to his face, tears dropping into it.

“they’re all waiting for me, you know.” zoro smiles. “you’ll meet us again. make sure it isn’t anytime soon or we’ll kill you.”

“zoro...” luffy cries.

they both fall silent, the only sound being luffy’s sobs. the sun is nearly down, night nearly upon them and their visibility is disappearing. luffy lays zoro’s hand gently on the ground, then climbs over him, trying to not let too much weight on him.

luffy’s hand moves behind him and pulls a pistol out from his belt forward, holding it between his hands. he notices how he shakes. is it from crying... or is he scared? he’s never been too good with guns, but it was always good to keep one on hand. 

zoro’s eye opens. his skin is nearly grey at this point, his breathing shallow as the blood from his mouth ceases. “you’re a good leader, luffy.” using the rest of his strength, he reaches up and cups his cheek, his thumb rubbing gently as it trails to behind his head, and luffy complies to being pulled down.

it’s a relatively short kiss- full of blood and chapped lips and tears. zoro loses strength and can’t kiss back much more, and luffy has to pull back, tears still falling as he wipes his face some, zoro’s blood staining it. 

“i love you, zoro.” luffy says, looking into his eye.

zoro keeps his eye open and smiles. “love you too...”

luffy smiles too, a big one. he tries to seem as happy as he can. despite all of it. he doesn’t want his love to leave without a sense of peace. “i’ll do my best... zoro!”

“good...” zoro’s smile fades, his stare becomes blank. “good...” his iris fades to white. there’s a light groaning as his head moves, unsure of what this new monster has been brought into, not sure what is happening.

luffy pulls the gun to its forehead. the smile’s gone, replacing with loud crying and shaking arms. he lets his weight fall onto the monster, keeping it in place.

the monster’s head stops, and its eye looks up at luffy. luffy clenches his teeth- he’s scared. unbelievably scared. not of the monster. but of who the monster looks like. and how he’s pointing a pistol at him, his finger over the trigger.

_i have to_. he thinks. _i have to. i have to._ but his finger doesn’t move. he only shakes, crying and palms beginning to sweat. 

the monster growls, its legs start to flail and its arms swat at the gun, throwing it to the side. luffy gasps and starts to reach for it when he’s suddenly thrown backwards to the ground, and there’s a heavy weight on top of him. he’s dizzied for only a second before he realizes the monster’s now on top of him, readying to bite down into his face. luffy stops him with his hands, gripping its shoulders and pushing as hard as he can back, unsteady and crying. 

“stop it zoro!” he screams. he’s already fatigued from running, the crying making it worse, and now fighting something as strong as this. its biting gets awfully close. “ _zoro_!”

it’s growling only gets louder. luffy looks around him, looking for the gun, and just hardly sees its glare in the last speck of sunlight. adjusting his hands, he’s now gripping onto the monster’s shirt, matching its force to keep it in place and reaches for the gun, stretching outward as much as he could with the restraint of the weight. it’s barely out of reach. 

luffy squeezes his eyes shut, continuing to try and reach for the pistol all the while fighting zoro- no, the monster back. it’s hard to think, even harder to differentiate this monster between zoro.

he sobs some more and opens his again, looking into the monster’s eye. “zoro...!” his voice has died down a lot, he’s no longer screaming. “please- _stop!_ ”

it doesn’t budge.

“zoro- zoro it’s me, luffy! you remember me. i know you do.” he tries to force a smile. “remember me!”

it still tries to sink its jaw into his flesh.

“i found zoro- no, i saved you. from starvation- r-remember that?” his breathing his heavy and he can hardly force his voice out. “remember all those times w-we fought together, o-or our scavenging. remember when i found that gun! you taught me how to use it!”

the movements of the monster seem to slow, just for a second. but it continues again. luffy swallows.

“when i shot something correctly for the first time you w-were really happy.” luffy laughs. “zoro said he almost gave up on teaching me! meanie!” zoro had used old bottles to shoot at from a distance to teach him. he stood behind him, arms around him holding the gun, showing him how to shoot and adjusting his hands and arms. _bend your arms this, move your hand that_. “you bragged about it to the rest of us! u-usopp said he would teach me better, but you insisted- remember?”

the monster’s movements slow again.

“and another time- one of our scavenging together, i-i got trapped remember? some rubble fell on me, when we were running away. i-i told you to go, i’ll handle it- but zoro didn’t leave me, even if we were going to die.” luffy says. running from a small hoard and some rocks from a nearby pile fell onto him. zoro refused to budge, fighting off as many as he can and managed to cut through the rock. he had to carry luffy back.

“or... or when...” luffy sobs. “when you said you loved me- don’t you remember that?” the monster’s growling quits, but it still tries to bite. “i thought zoro was dense! i thought i had to say it!” luffy squeezes his eyes shut, the tears stinging his eyes. “but zoro did it. at the back of the first truck, when everyone else was asleep. you said it, and zoro hugged me.” another sob.

the monster stops moving all together.

“zoro first kissed me behind a tree away from the others.” luffy laughs a little. “zoro was nervous. and-“ something wet falls onto his face, and it wasn’t his own tears.

luffy opens his eyes, seeing the monster with tears in its white eyes. it does nothing, only letting the tears fall from his face.

luffy smiled at it. smiles at zoro. “i knew you were in there.”

still no response.

“zoro scared me for a second. but i know you wouldn’t hurt me.” he cups the monsters face, wiping a stray tear. “thank you. i’m sorry.”

luffy quickly manages to grab the pistol, bringing it to the side of the monster’s head and pulls the trigger. the sound is deafening, the blood from the shot spraying and coating his hand and face, ears ringing as the monster falls on him. he drops the gun and allows his arms to drop as well, trying to catch his breath.

and then, luffy screams. real, raw , hysterical screaming that nearly tears his throat. he can hardly hear it through the ringing in his ears. he wraps his arms around the corpse, tears falling once again, and he keeps screaming. he doesn’t care what it attracts. he’s alone now, with his lover’s blood splattered across his face. 

…

luffy makes a proper grave and gives himself time to rest. he managed to find a river within the woods to wash the blood and dirt away. 

he says his final goodbye to zoro. he’s atop the cliff where he spent his last moments, looking over the city and the distant ocean. he didn’t want to leave, but he knew it wasn’t right to stay. it’s not what he would’ve wanted, them either.

he leaves the forest and goes back into the city, managing to get through it safely and finding an awful lot of supplies. food, first aid, some books, clothes, a little instrument, another weapon, and extra bullets, and even some money. though it wouldn’t be worth much.

when he finds the shoreline, he looks out at the ocean. blue and sparkling, it’s the one place untouched by the new world. the sand is clean, minus small specks of rubble and rocks from the city behind him. he sees a little boat a little far down, and it’s in great condition. perfect for one, maybe two if you’re determined enough. no holes, an extra oar, space for storage.

luffy has no idea how to navigate. he can’t cook. he can’t heal himself. he can’t fix things, can’t drive. can’t use swords. can’t run a boat. only they could. but they’re all gone now.

so, until he finds someone new to help, luffy used what he has learned. after throwing all his stuff into the boat, he pushes it into the water as hard as he can, and hops in before it can get to far. it shakes a bit, but he sighs. a sigh of relief, of safety, maybe. but it’s lonely sense.

he looks back at the city and spots the cliff at the top. he can just barely see the little grave at the top. he knows that further down the line there’s a stash of swords. then of some medicine and a hat. money. cooking supplies, cigarettes and a lighter. instruments. books and a truck. some weapons. luffy breathes.

“i’m off!” luffy smiles. it’s weak, but genuine. ”nami, usopp, sanji, chopper, robin, franky, brook… zoro… look after me, please.”


End file.
